<snip stuff about continuity and artistic licence and their correct usage>

Well, it's true that a few minutes of research can help authors avoid a lot
of glaring errors and lend a lot to giving the fanfic the correct "feel",
but there comes a point where it's time to put down the books and just wing
it. In these situations, I use an artistic trick called "closure"; ie,
letting the reader fill in the details. It's the difference between:

"The victim's screams stopped as the sword sliced off his head, and the
headless neck spurted blood all over the room." (no closure)

and

"The victim's screams were silenced, and a head rolled to the floor. A pool
of blood slowly seeped into the floorboards." (closure)

In a way, the second sentance has more impact because it lets the reader
imagine the actual act of the head being lopped off. The reader fills in
the details, and this scene becomes much more gory and horrific in the
mind's eye than I could ever describe with words.

The trick of writing, I've always believed, is striking the right balance
between the amount of work that the writer and the reader do. By applying
closure correctly, you can make a story that is very "real" without slowing
down the drama too much. In a way, leaving out the right details can make
your story _more_ "real", as we commit closure every day of our lives. We
have a reasonable guess about what the whole shape of a soda bottle is,
even when another bottle is covering half of it. What you leave out is as
(maybe more) important as what you put in.

For those things I'm not sure of (such as the location of the
afformentioned bathroom), closure is a great tool to avoid work and get it
right at the same time. I just say something to the effect that suchandsuch
was going to the bathroom, but not offer _any_ clue to where that bathroom
might be located. The way I write, that bathroom could be located on the
first floor (which I think is where it is, BTW), the second floor, or in an
outhouse. In the end, it doesn't matter where the damned thing is, just as
long as it's there somewhere.

This has the effect of working in all cases. Not only would it be
consistant with the cannonical version, but also with the readers personal
version, too. If that version changes, it's STILL correct. I admit it; I'm
lazy! I don't want to get into details I'm not really interested in getting
right (I'm doing this for FUN, after all). So I get closure to cover my ass
and make the story more interesting at the same time. It works like a
charm.

Closure: It's a cool tool. ;)


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